Chance Seneca Lafayette Louisiana man indicted for gay hate crime attack on victim, Holden White. Justice Dept releases plot to kill, chop up gay men cause of their sexual orientation.
A Louisiana teen has been charged with plotting to murder gay men — including a plan to dismember one victim and use his body parts as trophies, mementos and food, the Justice Department has said in a release.
Chance J. Seneca, 19, of Lafayette, was indicted on six counts including hate crime with intent to kill, kidnapping, firearm possession and obstruction charges in connection to a scheme to attack gay men for their sexual orientation, the Justice Dept stated.
Seneca allegedly tried to kidnap one man and successfully abducted two others on June 19 and 20 of last year — using the dating app Grindr as his ‘hunting ground,’ the release stated.
The plot unraveled after Seneca couldn’t take the sight of his own deprivations and called 911. Police responded to his dad’s house on June 20 to find Seneca outside smoking a cigarette and his seriously injured victim, Holden White, then 18, passed out in an upstairs bathtub.
‘Officers reported seeing White’s wrists slit to the bone and strangulation marks around his neck,’ the complaint states. ‘Weapons, such as a knife, ice pick, saw, and hammer, were in in plain view around the bathtub.’
‘intended to kill and dismember White,’
Upon Seneca taken into custody, he allegedly told a detective he ‘intended to kill and dismember White,’ the complaint stated.
The indictment also stated Seneca attempting to cover up his actions by deleting communications between himself and the victim of the attempted murder.
In an account of the assault, he explained to police that he met White on Grindr, brought him home and convinced him to wear handcuffs as part of a proposed sexual encounter.
At one point, he allegedly pressed a gun against White’s back.
Seneca said he then strangled White from behind until he was unconscious, pulled his body into the bathtub, stripped off his clothes and sliced his wrists with a knife so deeply his hands were almost severed.
‘Seneca explained that he had hoped to remove and preserve White’s hands but that he could not finish his plan after seeing the bones of White’s wrists exposed under the flesh,’ court papers allege. That’s when Seneca called 911.
White spent nearly a month in intensive care and rehabilitation before he was released, according to Metro Weekly.
“Chance Seneca, 19, of Lafayette, was charged by a federal grand jury on March 18 based on his attempted murder of a gay man and his overarching scheme to kidnap and murder gay men whom he met online.”
— David Begnaud (@DavidBegnaud) March 18, 2021
‘It was literally him sawing into my wrist…’
‘He left the room to get something… And when he came back, he had come up behind me and that’s when he wrapped a cord around my throat,’ White told KLFY in November. ‘The next thing I remember I was in the bathtub, and he was slicing open my left wrist.’
‘It wasn’t just one swipe,’ White told KATC that same month. ‘It was literally him sawing into my wrist and I was like screaming and crying in pain.’
Court papers do not disclose additional details about the other two men he’s charged with targeting.
Seneca is being held on $250,000 bail. If convicted, he faces up to life in prison.
